Failure to Communicate

continued

"I'm the chief negotiator for the union," says Fitzpatrick, "and we have monthly meetings with the president. [With previous president] Larry [Whitworth], we'd get on his calendar quickly, and when we raised issues at the meetings, he was always about problem solving. By contrast, when we tried last August to set up a meeting with [Bellanca] for September, we were told that there was not a single day in September or October she could meet. Only in November could we get a day with her.

"And in those meetings, it was never about problem solving but about affixing blame, usually to Stuart [Blacklaw]," Fitzpatrick continues. "[Bellanca would] start to answer a question, and then she'd say to Stuart in front of everybody, 'I'm not blaming you'--which was exactly what she was doing."

"Larry had a heavy-handed administration style," Krantz added in a March interview, "but he was fair and approachable, willing to listen, and willing to engage. There's none of that with the new president. Specifically, [the department chairs] requested a meeting with her in January, and she declined. I asked her for another general meeting after that and have heard nothing back."